Shiras
Shiras is the southernmost region in Ardalor. It is populated very diversely in terms of races, when compared to the more central regions. This is perhaps due to the many different climates in Shiras, to which the different races have adapted better than the others. The region is northwards dominated by the Wasteland from Skarlok, along with the Ogres, Giants and Dragons that dwell there. On the western coast, though, the wasteland turns into a desert not unlike Skarlok’s Osiron. Here live a people known altogether as the Jaziir, who communicate more with the northlying Calmar than with other parts of Shiras, and many wars, internal and otherwise, have been fought with imperial aid. In the middle of Shiras lies a mountain chain controlled by the Dwarves, and south of that, the Lake of Ghosts, a huge bodu of water said to be a gathering point of all Ardalor’s souls before they leave to the Etherium. To the Southeast of the Wasteland lies an area strewn with farms and villages, and with six great castles in them. These six castles’ lords bicker and bother and do war over the area to become King of the Six Baronies, a task not made easier because of the Wasteland to the west and the Goblin Jungle to the south. Aahh, the Goblin Jungle! Filled with Jungle Goblins and Forest Trolls, all loosely united under the self-appointed Big Epic King Swelik of the Jungle Goblins and Forest Trolls, it is! Suffice to say, that title stretches just about to the nearest settlements and no further, and the Trolls and Goblins are about as united as oil and water. The only contact these wood-dwellers have with other races is through Hook Bay, a trading port populated by thieves, trader, scum and socialites, or as they say, people of all sorts. On the other peninsula lies Dorfton, this is to Dwarves what Hook Bay is to Goblins, although the population of the town is rather fifty-fifty of Dwarves and humans, and the citizens are decent folk. And at the last, is the Underground Dwarf Kingdom, ruled by King Bay of the Dwarves, who has made his domain nigh impenetrable, as the entire realm is surrounded by bastions and garrisons, and the overlying ground is covered all over with mines, which only the local critters and crawlers are able to live by without blowing themselves to pieces. Jaziir At the north-western end of Shiras lies Jaziir, an area covered in sand and mystery. It is a great desert, with towns spread out over the landscape, yet to navigate one must know the exact location of the nearest one by heart or bring a great deal of provisions. The three major features in Jaziir are Snakeport, the Senate of the Scorpids, and Ilyasjyad, the City of Sand. The City, as it is called daily by the Jaziir, is a densely populated city, a hub of culture, trade, and wealth, governed from the Palace of Sand where the Sultan sits upon a throne constructed entirely of sand, held together through a process which melts it partly into glass. The Sultan, though, seldom reigns for long, as the three families, called the Lords of the Sand, vie constantly for the throne. The first family, the Lionites, hold their islands off the coast, from where they constantly attempt to gain political power by trusting in the safety granted through this island-dweller culture. The second family, the Snakes, rule Snakeport, from where they hold a great economic presence in Shiras, and they control most of the sea-based trade in the entire region. The third family is the Scorpids. These schemers and administrators hold great power inland and have a huge military presence, which the family uses to enforce an elaborate systems of laws which, in the end, give the Scorpids a great deal of money. Through the times, these three families have had the throne and this with help from various other places, namely the states of Calmar’s Empire to the north. To the south is an immense amount of sand, in dunes and as a great reef, which heavily impedes any journeys to the south, while Jaziir’s eastern border is naught but a fall in temperature and the change from desert to wasateland. Kingdom of the Dwarves South of Jaziir’s dunes stand a line of constructions: bunkers and small fortresses filled to the brim with cannons. These defensive buildings stand all the way along the dunes, and down to the coast, following the water until a huge wall is reached, a wall that goes inland again and ends on the shore of the Lake of Ghosts, by the pillars that prevent the restless spirits from following the water southwards. All this mass of battlements surrounds a vast steppe holding a variety of small plants and animals, such as bushels, squirrels, and snails. Oh, and mines. The Dwarves, in their pursuit of defensive superiority, have covered the landscape above their kingdom in fragmentation mines sensitive enough to be triggered by anything down to goblin weight, hence the sole presence of small things. Other than this, the Dwarves’ kingdom stretches beneath the mountain range which it borders, and up on the other side, to the Wasteland where a number of Dwarven fortresses have been erected to serve as defensive posts and to send out hunting parties to gather valuables from the creatures that dwell in the Wasteland. But let us get underground! Very few humans have ever been allowed into the Dwarven Kingdom, and those who do have vowed not to speak of its layout. However, they have mentioned great riches and huge, underground farms, the crops of which get their light from powerful runes carved in the ceiling, so that the earth itself allows the light of the sun to pass through. They have also spoken of the King Bay the First, High King of Shiras’ Dwarves and the one responsible for the link between Calmar and all of sub-Jaziir-Shiras. It is said that the warriors of the Kingdom are trained in the greatest arts of defense taught to any army, and only the most skilled and determined of fighters would be able to get through a Dwarven Shield Wall, let alone finish the fight afterwards. Dorfton and Hook Bay The two southernmost settlements in Shiras (and thus, Ardalor) have a number of treaties with each other, and even though their relationship is more on the paper than in the heart, they are officially a coalition. Dorfton lies just south of the wall which protects the mine-covered lands above the Dwarven Kingdom, is governed mainly from there, as the King Bay ordered the town built to establish relations with the other races without jeopardizing his massive defences, and he is even the formal mayor. The town is composed of what a normal town would contain, but with a Dwarven twist: about half the buildings are built in a Dwarven fashion, and there is an underground entrance which at all times is guarded by a corps of Shieldbearers. The town functions as a normal town in all respects, and is a common stop for traders looking to round the southern tip of Ardalor, especially if they seek to avoid the somewhat less lawful Hook Bay. Hook Bay is situated somewhat further south than Dorfton, and is much more of a ‘port’ than its partner. It was built with a defensive principle, as the point it is situated on, has a very clear ‘hook’ shape, ideal for warding off the Goblin pirates that once prowled the seas. Today, it has become the home of many a person, though the majority of these people are the ‘rowdy’, old seafarers who may or may not slit your throat in the night. The other people in Hook Bay are a random assortment of charlatans, rich folk and socialites, who wish to ‘liven’ their lives up on one of the inns in town. And if one wishes to fit in Hook Bay, the inns are the place to look; where other towns and cities have guilds for the men and women of a craft, Hook Bay has more of a sort of social networks through the inns, where alcohol does not necessarily (but most often) pose as the main reason for going there. Apart from that, the town is the main supplier of anything found within the Goblin Jungle, be it Sasquatch Spittle sold from a Troll witch doctor, or exotic potions bartered by a shady Goblin hoodlum. And yes, these two types of ‘trades’ have their respective inns. The Eastern Goblin Jungle Off the eastern shores of the Lake of Ghosts lies a great, dense jungle, inhabited by the entire jungle-y creature array one could imagine, be it snakes, sasquatches, squirrels, snails or anything in between. The main sights in this jungle, though, are the settlements scattered throughout the woods, populated by Jungle Goblins and Forest Trolls. These two races have a long-standing feud, developed through centuries of territorial fighting, blatant racism, and even attempts of one race to subdue another. This has made the Trolls stand much more together than the Goblins, purely because the Goblins, under King Swelik, have grown severely in numbers, and while one Troll can squish one Goblin as though he was Zhuizrhomanean cheese, it will be hard doing with ten more around him. The Trolls, to this day, have kept themselves alive by the use of powerful Voodoo Magicks; idols that are given their own limited consciousness, plus the ability to perform a specific spell. The downside of this lies in the immobile nature of these statues, and as such, it is a heavily defensive art. Both the Goblins and Trolls live in abodes made from the forest; sticks placed with animal hide suspended between them to make a tent, tree logs that have been felled and hollowed for a nice, cozy shack, hollows in the jungle’s hills, that sort of thing. The only major exception is the hold of the Goblin King Swelik, or to use the full title (we will now combine both the ‘castle’ and the ‘king’s’ titles for ease of reading): The Big Epic Abnormally Spectacular Awe-Inspiring Imposing Wooden Castle of King Swelik I The Absolutely Unquestionably Fantastic Liberator Of The Eastern Jungle Goblins And Also Conqueror Of The Hundred Troll Bands. The only objectively true words in these titles are Big and Wooden for the Castle, which to most people would rather appear as a collection of timber, pointed out and stuck into the ground(definitely not a palisade), with some Goblin houses in the middle. And as for Swelik’s title, he only really rules his own settlement (it’s still the largest in the jungle, though), and has rather taken over Troll territory than actually conquered. Also, Trolls are divided into tribes, not bands, and there are far from a hundred. By the way, Goblins have little sense of numbers beyond five anyway. The Six Baronies By the northern tree line in the Goblin Jungle lies a great wall, and behind it, a vast stretch of cityscape, farmland, and battlefield. This coastal and island-lying area is known as the Six Baronies, and it is the most turmoil-pestered place south of the Passed Lands in Dinacia. Its heartland is covered in the houses of citizens, farmers, and the likes, all of it only divided by water, feelings of common identity, and a large battlefield. The reason for this is that there are six castles, each housing a baron whose lineage can be traced to a king who once ruled this land (and much more of the wasteland, which was a lot greener back then). As he left no heirs but six nephews, these split the land between them, but were soon thrown into strife by jealousy, external threats from the Wasteland, and most of all, greed. Today, these six barons still vie for power, each allied to some and in bitter conflict with others. And the civilians support this war, as generation after generation has brought more and more social isolation from the other barons’ domains. This is a very apparent thing, as there are even places where there is stretch of land or body of water to divide the domains and in these places the people may actually be at war with the neighbours through whose windows they can see while eating their evening meals. The six barons’ castles are each placed to give them a formal duty so as to uphold the pacts made between them: The southernmost castle, home to Baron Knut the Seventh, has the task of tending the wall towards the Goblin Jungle. Allied with Baron Valdimar and Baron Nelson, Knut’s control over the Baronies’ southernmost harbour gives him a great monetary advantage over his bitter foe Sven, and gives him some bragging rights against his two other enemies Abselon and Hakon. Further north is the castle of Baron Valdimar the Fifth, whose sworn duty it is to feed the people of the Baronies through farming, a task which he oversees with little enthusiasm, alas, as his main goal, just as his father’s and his father’s father’s, is the death of his sworn enemy Sven, which he works together with his ally Valdimar for. He is also allied with Baron Abselon, who controls the gate to the peninsula, and so disallows for Sven’s troops to flank his own for that side. The Barons Abselon and Nelson are his enemies as well, though they both lie behind Sven’s lands. On the other side of the battlefield lays the castle of Baron Sven the Fourth, the Baronies’ official head of military actions, especially against any Wasteland threats. That being said, he uses much of his military power to press against his three enemies Knut, Valdimar and Abselon, the former of whom is his main target for most operations. His two formal allies Hakon and Nelson and more allies of need and convenience, as they have the logistical resources he needs, while he has weapons in abundance from his many smithies. The most northern lying castle belongs to Baron Hakon. His call is that of the defence against the Wasteland terrors as well, though he is much more focused on that than his colleague of duty, Sven, who he still has an alliance with, though. The main enemy of Hakon is Baron Nelson, whose fishing has drained the waters around Hakon’s lands of fish at times, thus making him dependent on his allies Sven and Abselon, especially the latter, for much of his people’s feeding. On the peninsula is the castle of Baron Abselon, who officially oversees the trade into and out of the Baronies as well as research, education, and the likes. He is the least aggressive of the six, though he has been forced by circumstances to take up arms against Sven, Knut and Nelson, mostly to prevent his own lands from being invaded. He is on very good terms with Valdimar and Hakon, whom he has often aided in the face of adversity. But everyone is welcome if they come in peace. Lastly, the island to the north houses the castle of Baron Nelson, who is the absolute fisherman’s friend. His large abundance of seafood has given him great exports to the other barons, though he maintains the best trade with his treaty allies Sven and Knut. But alas, many a time has his fishing come to a halt because of critical overfishing, which has made every other baron esteem him as the rather unwise of the six. He also controls the trade from the north, which is unfortunately somewhat less than that from the south, but still a good source of income, and for lowering his own prices.